Company Repertoire

Here is a listing of our productions, with quotes by Eli Siegel from his lectures. Click on the blue titles for a complete flyer about the presentation.

Julius Caesar; or, Mixed Motives in Ancient Rome

"Julius Caesar is essentially about confusion. There isn't a person in the play who isn't perplexed. We have what interested Shakespeare so much: the way emotion is flexible, contrary, rich, puzzling; and the way people can have one feelings and have something so different in the same minute. .... We can ask, How kind was Caesar? I see kindness as the height of intellect, the height of subtlety, the height of perception.... I think Caesar was kind, and did have a great love in his heart--moreso, perhaps, than any other Roman. "

Symmetry and Fury in Sheridan's The Critic

"Two things are present which are ever so hard to manage: the fact that we can reason and have control; also that we are furious cauldrons, molten and bubbling. We are symmetry and unrestraint. And Sheridan, like other writers, other human forces, is a study in fury and symmetry."

Absurdity in a Dukedom; or Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

"This play can be said to be a lot about self-love trying to be love.... Olivia is not wholly honest. She is stiff, likewise, and she is afraid of what she may feel.... Malvolio seems to represent also a certain kind of self-slavery, a stiffness.... Viola represents the outside world coming to stir up both Orsino and Olivia.... The Clown is against all that stiffness; he is also against insincerity.... There is a kind of emotional dance.... and if the play is seen as having in it both an approach to ethics, an approach to good and bad, and to events, with a surrounding of infinity, then the play is truly felt."

Shakespeare's Othello; or, Clever and Deep Evil

According to Aesthetic Realism, Iago represents the cunningness of evil in every person....He says to people, Look, if you think you've dealt with the problem of evil that quickly, by making speeches about it and smiling at each other--don't fool yourselves! ... The only way you can fight for good is to keep on understanding evil and never get tired. Otherwise, evil will come upon you, and fool you.

Shakespeare...& What Is Love?

This dramatic and musical matinee includes "Aesthetic Realism and Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew," the 1951 lecture by the great American poet and critic Eli Siegel, along with vivid scenes from this wild comedy, and incidental music performed by flutist Barbara Allen and pianist Edward Green.
--TheatreSource

And about The Taming of the Shrew, Mr. Siegel said:

Shakespeare was solving a problem through these people in Padua that he saw as an everlasting problem of persons....Katharina is the energy in woman looking for a means of showing itself. Because she hasn't found it yet, she is in an ill mood. She represents the desire in ourselves to come to a repose through meeting an energy that we respect....Once we can see the world as beautiful, we shall be in a very fortunate position of not wanting to use our energy in the field of anger in such a manner that we are displeased with ourselves.

A Midsummer Night's Dream; or, Earthy Whirl

It comes to this: Shakespeare bows to a world both shimmering and obstructive; gossamer and solid; and the play presents reality in its mysteriousness and solidity. How is that great mix-up of the world, and all the confusion in ourselves, to come to anything that is seen as sensible?....Aesthetics can, while accepting the utmost in confusion, in the moment of courageous acceptance see the music that brings it all together. That is one of the sweet glories of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Shakespeare and Instinct Are There

The instincts are either going forward or going away. They are going forward with amiability or going forward with againstness; or they are going away with hate or going away with fear. Roughly, there is a from and to in the instincts....In the meantime, the instinct of Shakespeare is working and, it has been thought, very well. There is an artistic instinct.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Revisited

Shakespeare’s The Tempest; or Darkness, I Love You

Shakespeare’s Awfully Fond of the Opposites

Evil Seen Beautifully; or, Voltaire's Candide

"Candide, though written in the middle of the polite 18th century, is one of the giddiest, speediest works that ever lived. And its beauty is its speed. It is a poetic, musical composition, with evil presented clearly in a tireless sort of dance."


Ethics is a Force!--Songs About Labor

"The most important thing in industry is the person who does the industry, which is the worker. ... Labor is the only source of wealth. There is no other source, except land, the raw material.... Every bit of capital that exists was made by labor just as everything that is consumed is. Ethics is a force like electricity, steam, the atom--and will have its way. " --Eli Siegel

The songs include “Hold the Fort,” “Joe Hill,” “The Union Buster,” "Rum and Coca Cola," “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” "Old Man River," "Seven and a Half Cents"—and many more!

What people are saying about Ethics Is a Force!—Songs about Labor:

“It was great. Everyone was inspired!” —George Tedeschi, President, GCC, IBT

“It wasn’t just great entertainment—it brought you into the emotion and meaning of the words. It stays with you. I want to use it for Union organizing. Everyone needs to see this!”
—Roberta Dunker, President, Teamsters Local 693

“The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company educated everyone. Their musical perform¬ance and spoken word were both enlightening and inspiring....I sincerely hope that the performers will be able to return again next year.”
—Angelica Santomauro, Executive Director, American Labor Museum, co-sponsor of Ethics Is a Force! at the Museum’s May Day Celebration in ‘04, ‘05, ‘06 & ‘07.

“You made our conference a success!”
—Richard Sheehan, President, Teamsters Local 802

“We should bring this program into our schools so that kids get an idea of the meaning of the labor movement. This is a tremendous thing you’re doing. It was very moving.” —Dennis Raymond, President, Teamsters Local 677, Waterbury, Conn. & Chairman for the Bakery and Laundry Conference USA & Canada

"This should go out to all the members everywhere because they would be so inspired. They need this. We all do, but I wish all of them could hear it.”
—Vito Dragone, Jr. Secretary-Treasurer, Teamsters Local 491, Uniontown, PA

“I’ve told so many people about this program. I like everything they did, especially ‘Joe Hill.’ The message was outstanding!”
—Moses Greene, New York State Attendance Teachers Association

“Through song after song—rousing, tearful, funny, surprising—the answer to economic injustice here and abroad is given....This event is urgently needed!”
—Alice Bernstein, syndicated columnist

“Ethics Is a Force! is thrilling. It had me see more the true power of labor—and how it can win!”
—Steve Weiner, Executive Board, Local 2627, AFSCME

"It was fantastic! We were entertained and educated."
—George Boncoraglio, President, CSEA, NYC

"We were delighted to have the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company provide a terrific and exhilarating performance as a kick-off to Arts Day in Albany [March 6, 2007], where celebrities, legislators, and arts leaders from around the state gathered."
—Judith Weiner, Executive Director, Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations

“I like Eli Siegel’s ideas!”
—Studs Terkel, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

The Great Fight of Ego vs. Truth!
Songs about Love, Justice, & Everybody's Feelings

Rock ’n roll, ballads, musical comedy, & more!

You’ll hear, through songs—including some of the most popular and beautiful songs—what the biggest fight is within every person and America herself. Eli Siegel, the great American critic, philosopher, and poet, founder of Aesthetic Realism, explained it. It’s the fight between contempt for the world and respect for it. It’s
the fight of Ego—lying about the world to suit yourself—vs. Truth.

Songs about love, justice, people’s feelings—these tell about that Great Fight of Ego vs. Truth as it goes on, sometimes humorously, and delicately, and intensely, in the dear self of each person. We’re proud to sing and comment on them—and to give the following news: Whatever the subject, every good song tells the truth about what reality is and who we are!

The reason is in this Aesthetic Realism principle—"The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites." Through this matinee, as you laugh and are stirred by songs, you'll know yourself and all people better. And you’ll find out why art and honesty are stronger than contempt and lies—no matter who’s telling them!

Ethics is a Living Thing! Southey's Wat Tyler

"The neatest presentation of the rights of people is in this play. In a way, Wat Tyler is a miniature masterpiece. It has in it politics, and history, and philosophy. "

Dickens' Hard Times; or, What Does a Person Deserve?

"Dickens had been born in the world of coaches, and yet he felt, 'Coketown, economics, strikes, unions--they have something to do with the hearts of people, the deepest things in people.'.... Bounderby is a representation of people who are afflicting and dirtying and lying about the world now: persons who make their own selfishness into a national achievement, who make their own lack of feeling into a world asset, who use all kinds of beautiful terms to hide their own grabbingness and hypocrisy.... The big thing about this book is its courage, along with the Dickens charm, and the subtlety. It shows so much of what Aesthetic Realism is interested in--the heart of man, the ethics of man in all times."

Ibsen's A Doll's House; or, How is One Thought Of?

"Every person wants to be seen a certain way....It can be described as good will and respect seen as one....The first thing in good will would be: How does this person want to be seen? And if you are really given to good will, the task of finding out would be more important than any vanity you have....The value of Ibsen is that in a play of 1879, the way a person wanted to be seen was made the dramatic key, pivot, crucial point."

Huckleberry Finn; or, Evil on the Mississippi

“Huckleberry Finn itself represents a question which is always around: how to be spontaneous, seemingly natural, oneself; and yet go along with what other people seem to ask of you. That is a very hard question.”

What is Individuality? or, Sudermann's Magda

"What is individuality or self? What relation does it have to everything else? The biggest thing in ethics is that when the self is seen most deeply, it is the same as the world—the world of all time and space—not the narrow provincial manners of Germany in the 1870s, or Nebraska in the 1880s, or Dublin in the 1830s, or Tel Aviv in the 1960s."

Strindberg's The Father; or, What Interferes With Love?

"Strindberg says--and he's very important for saying it--a woman can, in seemingly yielding to a man, hope to have contempt for him. There is a desire to have someone who seems strong become weak, and in this way to glorify yourself. This is what Strindberg noticed in his married life, and he hated it."

Moliere’s School for Wives; or, Agnes and the Bourgeoisie

"The School For Wives is important because it is one of the most notable fightings of that feeling, 'If you want to have a woman love you, she can't be too intelligent.' That is why the play has remained--along with the fact, to be sure, that it is also beautifully made.... It can be called a satire on darksome and sometimes very plain possessiveness.... And when it is acted, it can seem like the soul of man proceeding to show itself amid the beating of fast drums. "

Sheridan's The School for Scandal; or, A Sneer Brightens Everything

"The School for Scandal is a study of the utmost spontaneity and the utmost polish and artifice, a study of pretense and naiveté, a study of hypocrisy and sincerity, a study, in other words, of man in his two great moods: “I'm for everything, and I love them”— “I don't give a damn for them”; “I want like anything to be known as I am”—and “How can I show myself to all these awful people?”"

George Kelly's The Flattering Word

Susan Glaspell's Suppressed Desires; or, Freud is Piffle

Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre; or, This Girl Had Good Will